one word [spike]
(ref: here)
They called her Spike.
She stood two feet tall, mostly skin and bones, and strode into the orphanage all moxy and laughter. The other children took an instant liking to her, though few showed it; they had learned that over emotion could get you hurt.
On the day-bed, all the other children simply hopped onto the shared mattress. Not the new girl; she would run and jump, as if spiking some invisible volleyball ... and fall, hard. She never got a blood nose ... but she never made it onto the bed unassisted either.
The first time someone called her Spike, she didn't respond; nobody else had ever told her she was clumsy and she never asked; here, you got named quick, and once the name stuck, she loved it - it gave her a kind of home.
Every one of us, no matter how jaded, warmed up to Spike within two months.
She seemed to tap into that little bit of joy you never let go.
And she wouldn't.
They called her Spike.
She stood two feet tall, mostly skin and bones, and strode into the orphanage all moxy and laughter. The other children took an instant liking to her, though few showed it; they had learned that over emotion could get you hurt.
On the day-bed, all the other children simply hopped onto the shared mattress. Not the new girl; she would run and jump, as if spiking some invisible volleyball ... and fall, hard. She never got a blood nose ... but she never made it onto the bed unassisted either.
The first time someone called her Spike, she didn't respond; nobody else had ever told her she was clumsy and she never asked; here, you got named quick, and once the name stuck, she loved it - it gave her a kind of home.
Every one of us, no matter how jaded, warmed up to Spike within two months.
She seemed to tap into that little bit of joy you never let go.
And she wouldn't.
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